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Topic: Bristol street shops (Read 4120 times)

Just wondering if anyone has any photographs of the shops on Bristol St, between the Diskery and Bristol St motors? I have shop there now and would love to see some old photos, can only seem to find ones as old as the late 80s.

hi shah welcome to the forum iv had a look for you and the only shops I could find was number 141 Bristol street I'm not sure if that's the numbers your looking for roy

Thanks for your reply Roy.It's strange can't seam to find any images pre 80s and these buildings must be 100 years old, it's numbers 74-94 I'm after. But will gladly see any pictures of the area.The shops are directly in front of where Kent St baths stood. I'm guessing the building on the corner of wrentham/Bristol St was a pub? I know there was a bakery called Starkeys, their flour store is now my workshop, and our shop is number 86, used to be Syeds solicitors.Thanks again

Welcome to the forum, I suppose it all depends on how far you want to go back and what part of Bristol Street you want photos of do you include The Horse Fair in the images that you want. This is a bit of a mixed bag, if you can indicate which one od of the area you are looking for I will see what I can do for you.

Welcome to the forum, I suppose it all depends on how far you want to go back and what part of Bristol Street you want photos of do you include The Horse Fair in the images that you want. This is a bit of a mixed bag, if you can indicate which one od of the area you are looking for I will see what I can do for you.

Thanks Phil, great pictures you sent over. I wish I knew where most of them were, I was born in 81! Fantastic reading everyone's own stories of places I'd always wondered about. In picture 3 I see the meat place you told me about in the other post, interestingly the top section of the gable is missing (and still is today) I wonder what happened to it., do you know what year it is? The builders have just moved in and are converting it into student accommodation, with a retail space on the ground floor, glad to hear they'll be keeping the facade and the frontage on Wrentham St. Our shop is further up on the right, middle of the block, haven't seen any images of that section pre 80s (thanks to the Superprix) although I only signed up this morning and I'd never seen some of your pictures. So I have high hopes! I shall be pestering everyone about pictures of my house on Trafalgar rd next 😀

I'm sorry I can't help you with the reason why the building is missing part of the gable, perhaps it was the result of catching the edge of a bomb blast during WW2 as bombing was pretty heavy in that area. I'll sort some more photos of Bristol Street out for you 74 to 94 I believe you are looking for.

I'll warn you in advance old photos of Trafalgar Road are scarce but there are some about, if you start a thread asking for some I will start it off with a couple I have.

I'm sorry I can't help you with the reason why the building is missing part of the gable, perhaps it was the result of catching the edge of a bomb blast during WW2 as bombing was pretty heavy in that area. I'll sort some more photos of Bristol Street out for you 74 to 94 I believe you are looking for.

I'll warn you in advance old photos of Trafalgar Road are scarce but there are some about, if you start a thread asking for some I will start it off with a couple I have.

Cheers Phil,

I gather you are the fountain of Birmingham knowledge now that I keep coming across you in the threads. Thanks for taking the time to reply. I was reading about Farm park and the old cottages, I used to live off Grantham road in the 90s. A lot different now even from when I was there, I watched them tear down the old church, heartbreaking.

I've attached a picture of the same building with the gable intact, not sure what's going on here, maybe you can shed some light?I gathered Trafalgar rd was difficult, it never comes up, I did manage to find an aerial photo showing the grand houses where the park is now but never saved it and can't find it now!I will start the trafalgar rd thread, looking forward to seeing the images, I have only been able to find 2 postcards, possibly what you have.

It looks as if they are taking up the tram tacks in your photo, which would make the year sometime after 1952 so this belies the fact that your damaged gable end of the possible W H Smarts building might have been caused by war damage. As it would be later than that.

After looking more deeply into the building on the corner of Wrentham St I now think that only the part of the building that is actually in Wrentham Street was W H Smarts. The corner building was listed to Francis Williams Oils Ltd who later became a Drysalters.

Also the theory I proposed for the missing part of the gable on the building in question has to be wrong, as this black & white photo taken in 1965 shows the gable in its entirety, but the colour photo taken in the 80's shows it damaged so whatever caused it was after 1965 but before the 1980's.